Super cmos devices on a microelectronics system

ABSTRACT

A low cost IC solution is disclosed in accordance with an embodiment to provide Super CMOS microelectronics macros. Hereinafter, the Super CMOS or Schottky CMOS all refer to SCMOS. The SCMOS device solutions with a niche circuit element, the complementary low threshold Schottky barrier diode pairs (SBD) made by selected metal barrier contacts (Co/Ti) to P- and N-Si beds of the CMOS transistors. A DTL like new circuit topology and designed wide contents of broad product libraries, which used the integrated SBD and transistors (BJT, CMOS, and Flash versions) as basic components. The macros are composed of diodes that are selectively attached to the diffusion bed of the transistors, configuring them to form generic logic gates, memory cores, and analog functional blocks from simple to the complicated, from discrete components to all grades of VLSI chips. Solar photon voltaic electricity conversion and bio-lab-on-a-chip are two newly extended fields of the SCMOS IC applications.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

Under 35 U.S.C. 120, this application is a Divisional Application andclaims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/343,465, filed onDec. 23, 2008, entitled “SUPER CMOS DEVICES ON A MICROELECTRONICSSYSTEM,” which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to the low power and mixedsignal analog, logic and memory (ALM) devices in a microelectronicssystem environment, including the methods of designing and manufacturingcertain chip sets, module and PCB sub-assemblies.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Since the introduction of the IC devices, workers have been trying toincrease the IC density, and reduce the cost of manufacturing chips. Thefirst approach means to put more components/functionality onto a chip.The second approach is to build more chips on a larger substrate. Thesubstrate Si wafer processing facility has grown from 2.5 IN diameter to12 IN. One wafer may hold 10 k full dices to reduce the unit costs. Acommon need to serve both purposes well is to reduce the physicaldimensions of each circuit's elements.

Various attempts were tried in the past to improve IC functionality,performance, and cost figures. The early IC implementations were donevia the bipolar junction transistors, where layers of various diffusionregions were stacked vertically, and isolated transistor pockets containthe three vital terminal switching terminals, among other R and Ccircuit elements.

FIG. 1a-1d shows the schematics of the physical layout of the basictransistor in BJT and FET or metal on silicon (MOS) eras. One can seethat the FET is always more compact (about 2.5:1 or more) than the BJT.The drawing showed the transistors with a minimum number of contacts. Ifone measures the dimension with the minimum feature ‘F’ size, theisolated BJT takes 20 F² area versus the MOST 10 F². Other circuitcomponents, which have more enclosure contacts in layoutimplementations, may have more pronounced area impacts.

For the last decade of IC implementations, it was V-I scaling that hasbeen needed in order to house more components on a chip. The devicecomplexity has grown to over billions of circuit elements withcomplementary MOS (CMOS) constructs. Still more complications were addedto the devices; the Flash transistors as memory blocks, almost doubledin process and mask steps and added complicated circuit manipulations.

The Nature Technological Barrier and its Breaker

The CMOS technology came after the BJT. The CMOS surpassed the BJT dueto two detrimental factors for the latter. The BJT are bulky, have poortransistor yield, and burns DC power. The CMOS device was slow at theearly stage when the thin film was thick.

However, the low cost CMOS sees its own shadow when the PHY scalingapproaches the end by 2012, and the voltage scale down is facing speeddegradation when the power supply is below 1.8V for many analog anddigital circuits. The famous Moore's law shall come to a stop: the lowcost alternative is not around the corner any more.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The disclosed approaches, semiconductor process means, circuitconfigurations, component and system implementations and manufacturingmethods are grouped and classified as the Super CMOS (SCMOS) technology,which offers significant cost and performances, reliability advantages,and improved system efficiency over the conventional CMOS IC approaches.The SCMOS device retains the best part of its predecessors such as theBipolar Junction Transistor (BJT), the Complementary Metal Oxide SiliconTransistor (CMOST) process and circuit solutions, and creates a superset of macros with new and simpler circuit architecture, static anddynamic operations.

The application of the SCMOS techniques is not only to crystalline Sidevices, which includes mixed signal and various multi-core Si Chips inthe Si single crystal substrates, but may also be expanded to includelow cost amorphous Si (A-Si) apparatus as well, as well as devices withA-Si, GaAs thin film layers on glass or metal panels, and solar cell andengines. The overall solar energy conversion efficiency can be improvedbeyond the well known conventional means.

Diversified system installations span from discrete components, computerand communication chips, to hybrid assembly of chips and PCB subunits,to medical biochips experiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1a-1d shows conceptually the transistor structures of the verticalBipolar and horizontal MOS transistors.

FIG. 1e is a table.

FIG. 2 illustrates the cross sectional views of the integrated SBD andCMOS transistors including Flash devices.

FIG. 3A-3C reviews the feature highlights of the SCMOS devices incomparison to the CMOS implementations.

FIG. 4 shows the initial forward and reverse I-V data points of theLtSBD test wafers from TSMC lab. MROM chip capacity was projected.

FIG. 5a-5b shows the solar energy intensity spectrum and the band gaps,from GaAs to SiGe, and Si PN junction, of the Photon-Voltaic materialsin tandem.

FIG. 5c is a table.

FIG. 6 depicts the Photon-Voltaic circuit model and band charts of theLtSBD devices.

FIG. 7a-7f shows the prior arts of a solar concentrator apparatus thatcan be employed for the current invention.

FIG. 8a-8d shows the current art of the bio-lab chips utilizingelectro-magnetic forces for life science and medical research. Low powerSCMOS chips are proposed.

FIG. 9a-9g updates the proposed SCMOS techniques for field programmingdistributed chip blocks and wiring schemes in a PCB/modules environment.

FIG. 10a-10e shows the cross-sectional building blocks of a maskprogrammed ROM core in the low cost SoC devices.

FIG. 11 shows the examples of the SBD-pass transistor logic (SPTL).

FIG. 12 and FIG. 13 summarize system performance and cost advantages ofthe SCMOS devices in comparison to existing CMOS TTL technology.

FIG. 14a-14b shows power consumption sources of a CMOS state-of-the-artscell phone chip set system.

FIG. 15a-15b shows the SCMOS implementation of a bridge-tied load BTLamplifier design.

FIG. 16a-16b compares the performance gaps between various on chipfunctional units that hinder low power and compact integration.

FIG. 17a-17e shows transistor level designs for the SCL type IO cells,including Hi-Z blocks and Schmitt triggers.

FIG. 18a-18f shows the RFID circuit implementation comparison betweenMOS transistor based diode rectifier and the SBD based rectifiers.

FIG. 19a-19h shows transistor level designs for the SCL typeHi-Frequency timing blocks, including PLL, delay lines, wave formingcells and multipliers.

FIG. 20 proposes the SCL type peripherals for the DRAM chips andcontroller chip sets.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention relates generally to the low power and mixedsignal analog, logic and memory (ALM) devices in a microelectronicssystem environment, including the methods of designing and manufacturingcertain chip sets, module and PCB sub-assemblies.

The following description is presented to enable one of ordinary skillin the art to make and use the invention and is provided in the contextof a patent application and its requirements. Various modifications tothe preferred embodiment and the generic principles and featuresdescribed herein will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art.Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to theembodiment shown but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent withthe principles and features described herein.

Generic IC solution options utilizing mixed analog, logic and memoryblocks are proposed with the following ground rules.

1. The main emphasis is to utilize the SBD as much as possible forlayout compactness, and its super speed.

2. The Schottky CMOS Logic (SCL) is utilized for its simple circuitconfiguration, high speed nature, and low signal swing of the high Cnets. The biasing schemes of gate functions further enhance array yieldand reliability.

3. Dynamic logic circuits are inserted whenever the static circuits aredispensable, and the prorated asynchronous clocks with their low dutycycles can reduce the chip power consumption to 10˜50% (100˜500 pswindows).

4. The Schottky pass transistor logic (SPTL) is added; it is useful inrealizing PLL nets.

5. Multi-core composites of the SCL peripherals, RAM, mask ROM (FIG.11), FPGA, and MLC blocks (FIG. 10) are proposed. The sizes of the SoCmulti-cores are dependent on the applications. The Latch and Mask ROMare the fastest and the lowest cost; the SRAM, and DRAM are the next inspeed but are getting more expensive. The NAND Flash is the slowest inoperation and also the most costly in masks and processes.

6. Newly added solar cells and solar engines with Si crystal and polycrystals.

7. Newly added bio-lab-on-a-chip applications for life science andmedical research.

The process means is based on the Schottky CMOS devices, which arecomprised mainly of CMOS transistors, low barrier Schottky barrierdiodes (P and N types of SBD), and multi-level cell (MLC) FLASHtransistors. One simple implementation may be based on the Mask ROM, theSchottky pass transistor logic (SPTL, shown in FIG. 14a-14b ), and theSchottky CMOS Logic (SCL) gate arrays. Another more expensiveimplementation is based on the programmable Schottky CMOS Logic (PSCL)gate arrays, wherein a variable threshold NMOS transistor may replacethe regular switching transistor. During the initialization of windows,the existing SCAN ring in the PCB chips and/or the FPGA programmingarrays can selectively adjust the Vt of the switching transistor,re-configure the intra-connections of the simple SCL gates, and completeall global interconnections of various units. Embedded hardware arrays,soft macro constructs in one chip, and protocols are parsed.

The Variable Threshold transistors thus serve three distinct functions.First, they act as an analog device to store directly nonvolatileinformation in SCL gates. Second, the transistor input couples the diodetree logic and could be multiplex functions. Third, the Flash and/or SBDarrays may store and operate large amounts of information in mega bytesefficiently. The mixed SCL type FPGA and MLC storages may emerge as themost compact logic and memory devices on chip in Si technology. This isespecially true for hand held small systems. Large systems may stillrequire module or PCB packages of multiple chip sets.

A simple device implementation may involve only Mask ROM state machines,small RAM, and logic gates. The SoC device may be built with giga HtzUSB2+ IO, Giga-Htz speed gate array logic arrays, Mega Byte NV machinecodes and using process from logic product line, low cost Si+2 Metallayers.

Once again, the SCMOS device means the low power consumption, highperformance, and high capacity ICs are designed to achieve best systemintegration, and to mix and replace conventional CMOS-TTL circuits withless parts. The idea of multi-value logic composed of binary, ternary,and quaternary hardware and firmware is also introduced. FIG. 12summarizes comparison of system merits in stick charts between the chipsfrom current CMOS TTL and the new SCMOS implementations.

Bottle Neck Pains in High Speed Clock Generation and Lowering the SupplyVoltage

While the industry is continually driving the IC with CMOS Si technologytoward further miniaturization, further scale down of I-V operatingconditions, shown in FIG. 13, have met stiff resistance in loweringsupply voltages and physical dimensions further. However on the otherextreme, we observed that while the power supply in logic device iswinding down from 5 volt to 1.8V (with 0.1 um design rules), someimportant memory core building blocks (i.e. MLC Flash) still requirehigher on-chip working voltages to the range of 10/20 volts. On one end,complex circuit and mode of operations need higher voltage ranges forbiasing conditions to work with. On the other end, lowering supplyvoltage and signal margins create formidable constraints in complicatedCMOS-TTL circuits, which often have high serial transistor paths due tostacked transistors with high RC time constants, and self biasing bodyeffects. There are severe conflicts that increased device functionalityand capacity are against voltage scale down. Addition innovation, suchas changing circuit topology, becomes critical to find a breakthrough inother dimensions of design creativity.

The SCL Low Power Solutions for Clocking and Interface Schemes

One solution to alleviate the inherent CMOS-TTL design and processingproblems is to use an innovative active component element-low barrierSBD in CMOS. This was first disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,852,578,“Schottky diode static random access memory (DSRAM) device, a method formaking same, and CFET based DTL”, issued Feb. 8, 2005, subsequentlyadopted in other applications such as peripheral units of Schottky Flash(SFLASH) cores, Schottky RAM (ShSRAM, ShDRAM), Schottky ROM (ShROM), andSchottky FPGA (SFPGA). In this invention, an SCL techniques is disclosedfor forming space, speed and power efficient constructs for PLL/DLLcircuitries (SPLL/SDLL). Basically, it derives from the concept that SCLcells and logic arrays posses the following attributes:

1. Smallest physical size of a contact hole carrying a channel ofindependent electrical signals.

2. Lowest on-off switching threshold (0.1-0.3V range) of any Si basedlayer active circuit elements.

3. Extremely simple circuit architecture using only inverters,integrated diode tree, and pass transistors.

4. Reduces total transistor counts, gate counts, and wiring distances ina chip.

5. Built-in zero power control scheme. Each cell has a single phase ofasynchronous Clock or Enable controls.

6. Nearly zero wake up times. Both the inter and intra circuit nets areof much lower RC time constants (pico second range) due to circuittopology, and reduced size.

7. It is operative for single voltage supplies down to 0.7V, consumingthe least amount of AC power.

8. Supporting concurrently static CMOS-TTL and dynamic CTL circuitinterfaces.

With the extension of MLC Flash array and SFPGA constructs, it further:

1. Provides both volatile and nonvolatile logic circuitries.

2. Provides direct analog-digital bi-directional signal translations.

3. Provides exceptional logic and memory capacity and RAS capability.

The SCL units can be operated with single supplies; and with laddersupply multipliers, it supports a broad range of reference voltages.Circuits are described pertaining to VCC for the next few generationsbelow present 1.8V (1.2, 0.9V) systems. The product applications mayspan from storage disks, multimedia cards, RF signal processors, tographics and display, and fully buffered DIMM for laptop, PC, phone,camera, and many hand held computing devices.

The power saving feature alone is significant enough for manyapplications. Each reduction of 70% VCC is seeing 50% power savingsalone if all other parameters hold the same. The real situation is thatthe device will realize spatial savings due to topology simplificationand layout rule shrinking, so there are compounded advantages. In latersections, we shall elaborate and explore other potential benefits of SCLin providing high speed clocking, low power, and high density circuitsolutions.

The Low Power Universal IC and Intelligent Memory

In conjunction with the referenced patents and the pending patent, it isthe goal of the present invention to deploy a system component designparadigm where, in an ideal design library, it may support productdesigns both as stand alone and embedded IC, analog, logic, and memory(ALM) functional units, and making ASIC with embedded various functionalunits on one chip, or to extend the module and PCB assemblies includingseveral SoC level chips. It is a cost consideration when one uses thedevices, whether in discrete units or advanced SoC chips; the decisionsare based on short/long term costs, including the cost in resources andtime for the technological development, engineering team, sales force,and system maintenances, pre and after sales supports, etc.

The low power feature is a significant attribute for an SPLL/SDLL typeof integrated part. There is an SPLL/SDLL circuit to every processor oremerging intelligent memory chip. For instance, in the U.S. PatentApplication 20050248365, Ser. No. 10/841,934, entitled “DistributiveComputing Subsystem of Generic IC Parts”, a PCB subsystem is proposedcomprising memory intensive chips. Each memory chip will apply the SPLLfunction, integrate it and incorporate other reconfigurations in orderto form an intelligent memory part. There is an option that the functionof a local controller chip in a PCB subassembly is eliminated orreplaced by the distributed processing power by the entire intelligentmemory chips. Hence, the PCB subsystem may be a single or multiple smartmemory chips.

The emphasis, however, is to promote the newly defined design platformof mixed signal Analog, Logic, and Memory (ALM) chips which may emergeas a new types of Universal IC (UIC) for the 5^(th) generation ICpractice supporting low power applications. Under the UIC environment,signals of various voltage levels coexist and interface with each otherdirectly or with suitable level shifters. In many cases, bus wires andnodes may carry multiple (triple or quadruple levels) signals toincrease the data process bandwidth in blocks and sub-systems. Inanother case, same signals may appear in multiple copies, eachcommunicating with a specific group of local blocks. An example is thecase of SCL register unit, where SCL gate meets simple (2-way) CMOS-TTLlatches, wherein both sets of signals are useful to SCL and TTL blocks.

Another object of UIC is to equip the memory intensive commodity chipswith simple intelligence to support clocking and termination options.These options, as shown in FIGS. 10, 11, and 20, may be accommodated viasimple SFPGA and other schemes. The added reconfiguring capability toselected portions of the chip not only improves the capacity of eachchip, but eliminates the traditional boundary of analog, logic andmemory commodities, therefore greatly enhancing RAS values and reducesinitial costs of the system, as well as the cost of post salemaintenance and services.

The SPLL/SDLL blocks are essential functional units serving timingcritical operations among local and inter-chip buses. Many prior artcircuits are reexamined, remapped, or reinvented simply for continuityreasons or to make significant improvements in certain aspects offigures of merits. Still many SCL type new circuit configurations inphase detection, shifting, delay controls, frequency syntheses,waveform-combining techniques (FIG. 19a-19g ) are newly proposed withexceptional performances.

In FIG. 1a-1d , we see that the CMOS devices evolve better and bettersince the 3-D shrinking of transistors. The performance gains betweenthe BJT and MOST are due to structures and physics. The difference ingaps is enlarged as the basic feature sizes are getting smaller and asmore contacts are included into the transistors in macro constructs.These points carry forward to the SCMOS structures shown elsewhere. Onecan see that the CMOS transistors are bulky and the SBD-CMOST integratedelements are physically and electrically more efficient.

GaAs and SiGe technology also got a lot of attention as the nextgeneration candidates for high-speed IC solutions. However, the costfactor stays unfavorable because of the low device yield, and high powercircuit operations due to the bipolar transistors. If SCMOSimplementation is developed, every respect for future VLSI applicationswill be improved. FIG. 1e illustrates this comparison.

In FIG. 2, we showed the SBD and NMOST, SBD and FlashT cross-sectionalviews. The P-type transistor implementation was also successful. Thismakes it clear that complementary SBD can be integrated with all typesof Bipolar, CMOS, and Flash transistors, and hence FIG. 3a-3cillustrates conceptual difference between the two types of MOS deviceimplementations.

It appeared as if the circuit comparisons were between a CMOS dynamiccell and a CMOS static cell. But one can see that if the A input of theCMOS TTL were driven by a dynamic pulse, the circuit would turn into adomino circuit with a feedback pull-up transistor Tpfb added, so theexample illustrates comparisons of the dynamic circuit operation betweenthe SCL and TTL configurations. Here the SCMOS compactness was betterthan 2:1 (243 F²:105 F²), the power saving was greater than 4:1, andspeed was better than 2:1. An averaged performance matrix gain showed 16fold or better. One can bear in mind that SCMOS macros contain allsimple CMOS static gates; any CMOS implementations less than 2 wayinputs are recommended to stay.

FIG. 4 shows the full range of typical N/P type SBD data points. The lowpower diode operations are in uA and 0.1 V, and the breakdown can becontrolled at 2 nA and VR=5V. With the 90 nm rules and 0.9 array ratio,one can support a low cost NV controller chip operable at Giga Htzclock, and Mask ROM of 256 MB.

FIGS. 5 and 7 a through 7 f reviewed the terrestrial solar energyspectrum. It showed that solar conversion was using GaAs, and PN Si/A-Sisystems having exited bands of 1.8, 1.4, and 1.1 ev respectively. Yanget al described comprehensively current solar cells with manufacturingprocesses involving low cost A-Si:H and A-SiGe:H double-junction cells,Ag/ZnO alloy thin films on stainless steel (SS) panels. The conversionenergy gaps were 1.75 and 1.45 eV, the conversion efficiency was ˜11%.

FIG. 5a illustrates multi-junction solar cells reported by Yang et al.

Through the introduction of the Co/Ti metal Si compounds, prior systemscan be modified, the Si/metal subsystem can be improved with additionalin far-red region energy conversions of the 1.1, 0.7, 0.52 eV modes ofPV current components. It is believed that the amorphous Si (A-Si) mayhave a PV effect with certain thin film layers including S, In, Se, Tin,and Co, Ti metals. Solar cells may be formed as shown in FIG. 7a-7f ,views 1-5, or in flat panel with glass, stainless steel, layers,polyimade and reflective layers; poly Si crystal films may form varioussolar cells in tandem and parallel strings, and they may be wired bySi/metal wiring tracks using SCMOS based HW/SW constructs.

FIG. 8a-8d illustrates the life science and medical research workconducted by Harvard scientists. It was inspirational that the lowpowered IC devices can be useful for this new field of extremeimportance to human sciences. The inductive coils were considered toobulky to incorporate onto the chip. The Harvard paper cited an importantcase to use the IC and mini coils to navigate bio-cell motions inmicro-meter dimensions. The dynamic low power circuit was an idealapplication to operate bio-cells with the least heat effects.

FIG. 9a-9g updated the SCMOS/CMOS circuit applications to the fieldprogrammable devices in PCB or module subsystems. The SCMOS HW/SWdevices may be deployed to lower the cost of subsystem in performances,the bill of materials and manufacturing methods, inventory management,system maintenance, field engineering support and service changes.

FIG. 10a-10e shows the cross sectional circuit and layout views of thenonvolatile memory core for the SoC chip sets. The macros include SCLperipherals of address buffers, decoders, SBD array core, senseamplifier and latch, internal and chip interface blocks.

In accordance with FIG. 18c , all buffers are implemented by SCL withcomplementary SBDs. All macros are determined such that the biasingconditions related to adjacent blocks assures that the diodes and ortransistors are subject to zero-stressed conditions in their quiescentstates. While the static logic gate does not assure the biasingconditions between adjacent circuit elements, there is one uniquebenefit offered only by the SCL dynamic circuits. For instance, thereare 1024 NOR word-line decoders, each containing 10 way diodes. In thepre-charged conditions, the internal nodes of the decoders are biased atVH, this is also true that all of their diode inputs are set at VH byusing ckb driven Buffer A. Hence all the decoder diodes are zerostressed.

Accordingly, the bit-line decoders are using NAND gates and buffer B areused to deliver GND level in quiescent state, so that all diodes thereare zero-stressed. Finally, the quiescent word lines and bit lines arein 0V, so in the array core, millions of array diodes are kept atzero-stress conditions there in a quiescent state. When the WL wasselected, it raised to VH level, then each of the bit lines are let goduring the WL and the BL decode window. After the selected bit lineresumes to its unselected mode, the activated BL then seeks to low stateby one diode drop below the VH of the selected WL. By the diode offsetof the sensing amplifier, the latch should sense the VH level if thearray diode presents.

FIG. 18e summarizes the timing diagram of the signals.

The distinct advantages of the world's fastest NV memory offered are:

-   -   Extremely compact peripheral and core sizes. Density is 4 F² per        bit.    -   Fastest on chip NV memory of any known memories. These memories        work with under nS cycle times, and they work seamlessly with        fast logic gates, as well as OS control and code stores.    -   Low cost logic process with transistor and 2 metals.    -   Extremely power saving, for appliances, cell phones, games and        handheld machines.    -   Excellent device yield by die size and 0-stressed components.

FIG. 11 prescribes the Schottky diode and pass transistor logic (SPTL)macros for compact and high performance logic functions. The Schottkydiode and pass transistor logic implement complex functions by the diodeCMOS transistor pairs.

FIGS. 12 and 13 summarizes the design and process trend following BJTand CMOST for the past fifty years. The timing focuses on a new circuittechnology for ALM device implementations. The SCMOS techniques shallbecome the main stream solution to extend Moore's law, and overhaul allSi product lines, porting to Si devices from 4 IN to 15 IN wafers. Theexpanded applications go beyond computers to solar energy conversions,mixed fuel and electric engines, life science and medical equipment.

FIG. 14a-14b showed what the current state of the art offers when inoperation with cell phone devices. What, then, are the power allocationsin mobile phone data transactions? The main power consumption activitiesare:

1. Turn power on—keypad and LCD backlights go on—search fornetwork—welcome.

2. Keypad backlights go off—display goes dark.

3. Display goes on but keypad backlights stay off.

4. Display goes blank.

5. Close flip external display backlight on. Main power consumptiontasks are on-line protocol hand shaking, key board and data accessing,display processing, and filing saving. The 1 W peaking power is a burdenfor battery backup operations. These days, travelers are grabbing poweroutlets in many different places to charge their mobile PC and cellphone units.

SCMOS uses lower VCC, LtSBD switches, and changes to SCL circuitconfiguration. It uses class D pulse width modulation (PWM) I²C V2_3.4Mbps, and USB2+ protocol for audio, video and RF signal processing.Faster local data transactions and lower signal swings will curtailaverage power under 4:1 ratio from VCC=2.5V to 1.25V and/or lower.Furthermore, there was a ladder charger circuit disclosed for switchingpower supply systems.

FIG. 15a -FIG. 15b shows the SCMOS implementation of a bridge-tied loadBTL D amplifier design. The BTL features the best audio quality, strongdrive of loads, and at lowest cost. Complementary audio signals aremodulated by pulse width modulated saw-tooth wave, the digital signalsfeed directly by the push-pull gates, which are operated by the samepulse width square clocks. The direct driver feeds the speaker with nofilter, no blocking capacitors, and quadruple the voltage/currentdrives.

FIG. 16a -FIG. 16b reviewed the present cell phone art of the CMOS TTLdevices. It showed severe gaps between the RAM, storage memories and thelogic units. Applying SCMOS chip overhauls is proposed, and employingSCMOS ALM blocks elsewhere in the system chip sets. Before 2010, thememory blocks are all significantly advanced to Giga-Htz operations.Chip performances are not only upgraded, but they also greatly enhancethe switching power systems and battery recharging systems. A new era oflow power and energy efficient microelectronics has been created. Solarenergy creation, solar engines, life science and medical research canimprove human lives by staying with Hi-Tech.

FIG. 17a-17e disclosed two IO cells used by SCMOS chips. The Hi-Z Bufferand the Schmitt trigger are important to interface high capacitive buslines at chip or internal wires. In the Schmitt trigger input buffer(STIB), the diode D1 and D2 and their series resistances may beimplemented to enhance the turn on voltage threshold references.

FIG. 18a -FIG. 18f discloses two basic circuit configurations of thebridge diode circuits of an RFID circuit implementation. In bothcircuits, RF signals are coupled via dipole antennas to MOS inputtransistors. FIGS. 18a and 18b show where diodes are wired by 3 terminalMOS transistors. In FIGS. 18d, 18e and 18f , however, the SBD was useddirectly for rectifier operations. One can obviously see the advantageswhen the bulky PN junction parasitic capacitance was eliminated, becausethe power conversion efficiency was greatly improved. The SBD versionimplementation has almost no backgate leakage effects, and its forwardresistances are orders of magnitude smaller than the MOS channelresistances.

Using a Dipole Antenna Model

Although dipole and monopole antennas are not necessarily the bestcandidates for UWB antennas, they are easy to manufacture and low cost.The FIG. 18c is the electrical equivalent of a half wavelength dipoleantenna presented in “Modeling and Simulation of A Dipole Antenna forUWB Applications using equivalent spice circuits” John F. M. Gerrits,Andreas A. Hutter, Jaouhar Ayadi, John R. Farserotu, Centre Suissed″Electronique et de Microtechnique SA (CSEM) Neuchatel—Switzerland. TheVoltage source VTX and Rs represent the output signals. The Rl standsfor the antenna loss resistance. Rr is the radiation resistance of theantenna. The R1, which is 1 Meg ohm, is used for Spice convergence. TheC2 is used to improve the performance of the antenna above resonantfrequency f0. Since the antenna is a linear network, we can use avoltage source for Vrx to simulate the antenna receive. The input signallevel from the MOST version is about 1 V peak-to-peak at 150 uW inputpower, assuming Cin=1 pF at 915 MHz, Vtd=0.5V. The SBD version shallwork with much less input power, and input signal required is about0.5V, the Vtd=0.2V, the power conversion efficiency PCE>50%.

In FIGS. 18e and 18f , the SBD ladder circuit works with both phase ACsignal generators, which are 180° apart. The body resistor can be as lowas 10 s ohms, the C of the charge pump can be 2 pF, the source impedancecan be 70 ohm, this makes the time constant of 200 ps. Note that thediodes only see no more than 1 Vp reverse biasing, and the onchip/module charge pump operation can be in the giga-Htz range.

FIG. 19a-19g describes a PLL and frequency multiplier implementationusing SCL macros. All the TTL NAND gates are implemented by the SCLgates. The delay line synthesis block, shown in FIGS. 19c and 19d byprior arts, is implemented by the inverter strings with external crystalfor stability. This low frequency loop offered 30 MHz oscillators. Othermeans of generating 30 MHz loops may use the CMOS TTL gates, and/or SCLgates as shown in FIG. 19e , the present invention. Here the feedbackdelay line leads are muxed by transistor-diode pairs, One Hot Selection(OHS) cell, where only one of the control signals determines the lowfrequency pulse width.

The 30 MHZ wave form (Pulse width is 16.7 nS) are shifted to form 208 pspulses by firstly the NA2 gates (FIG. 19F-19G), followed by the NOR treeto generate the 2.4 GHz bit clock at 2.4 GHz.

FIG. 20 showed the Controller for the DRAM SIM modules. By using a SCMOScontroller, lower bus signal wires can be designed, lowering it to 1.2V,the DRAM chips are also accept this lowered address and data signals,and there are internal peripheral circuit with SCL interfaces. This newcontroller and chips will operate at DDR3 and DDR4 speed while burningless power.

The SCMOS device specifications are summarized as follows.

SCMOS Device Specifications

1. Fab. Process/Circuit Elements

-   -   Devices: CMOS extension, Tx. Res. C, +Low Barrier Schottky Diode    -   Trench/ROX Isolation    -   Planar zed multi-layer metal (1-6)/poly (2)+3D proximity        controls

2. Layout Rules/Feature Size

-   -   Horizontal Rule Shrink Strategy: 3 um->1 um>0.25 um>90 nm>22 nm    -   Vertical Rule Shrink Box: 200->70 nm    -   Insulator: 10 nm

3. Power Supply Scaling

-   -   Chip Supply: 2.5>1.8>1.2>0.9>0.6V    -   Internal HV: 20>10>5    -   Tx Vt: 1.1>0.9, 0.7, 0.5V

4. Mixed Signal Chip Circuits

-   -   Keep Simple CMOS blocks<2 way TTL    -   CMOS-TTL>Dynamnic SCL, SPTL, FJ gates/active nodes    -   Arrays: MLC SFlash, SBD Mask/ROM/OTP, PSRAM, SRAM, Class D        Audio, Video Amp. RF, Multi-Bit ADC/DAC, SFPGA    -   Fast wake up, Asyn/Syn clocks, HDHS State machines, FPGA    -   SPLL Gbps nets

Module/PCB Nets

-   -   Standalone chips>PC and Bio-Lab programmable Chips, Solar        panels, CSP, USB2+interface, moderately high BW (10/100 MHz)        wires    -   Fully buffered 2-4 level switching nets 0.6-5 V swing

Mixed CMOS and SCMOS SOC Embedded ALM Blocks

The proposed high frequency generation described above is based on thecontrollable phase splitting and simple SCL type logic circuit forsignal processing. Rather than generating high frequency directly withhigher jitter, a secure lower frequency oscillation is controlled, thenmanipulated with the lower range oscillatory circuit waveforms tocomposite and synthesize very high frequency signals. The proceduresfrom the above embodiments may be altered to yield equally spacedswitching edges with the combination of fine granular segment delays andsimple mathematical divisions. Simple D-flip flop stages will yield dualor quad-phase division, the inserted SCL inverters will match and patchany timing gaps with fine granularity under 100 ps.

Still other main benefits of the generic SCL circuits are summarizedbelow.

1. Simple circuit configurations.

2. Space savings.

3. Mixed hard/soft code storage.

4. Mixed RAM, IO, ROM blocks.

5. Easy to control RC time constant of every nets it couples.

6. Build-in power stop and quick wake-up.

These features are important to all high-speed nets especially toPLL/DLL circuitry in mobile computing. Using SCL type logic and PLL caninsure fast speed, space saving and power economical.

The Most Important Concepts with the SCMOS IC

The most important concepts with the SCMOS IC lie in several areas.

1. Active switching elements, shifted from transistors to SBDs andintegrated transistors, which are extremely high speed in 10 s of GHz.

2. Class D I-V operating points of switching elements are closest to theorigin, say at 0.1 V, 1 uA, burning prorated sub-u-watts.

3. Logic operation modes changed from static to static and dynamical.

4. The DTL circuits only uses single internal node, and single powersupply and small signal swing, which can be 0.6V. There were no stackingtransistors, nor high RC data paths.

5. All ALM blocks can be operated from 5-0.6V, with synchronous andasynchronous duty cycles.

All standard CMOS (TTL) functions are retained. Use of the SCMOS supermacros is at user's options and discretions. The guidelines are anycomplex gates having more than 2-way TTL implementations are recommendedto switch over to DTL counter parts.

Since the SCMOS devices and the diode-transistor components holdsuperior benefits both as ideal switching elements and ultimate systembuilding blocks, its library shall cover the whole domain ofsemiconductor microelectronics infrastructures; prior, present, andfuture applications. The SCMOS devices, which support both the dynamicand static operations with the new super set macros, shall also retainall simple CMOS (TTL) and Flash circuits. It can overhaul all previousart works of BJT and CMOS implementations, and it can be ported to anyfabrication lines from 4 IN to 15 IN manufacturing facilities.

This super set solution is called the SCMOS technology. Basically, it iscompatible with the processes of CMOS and Flash transistors, with theexception of thermal and electrochemical treatments related to the SBDbarrier metals. SCMOS devices may extend its applications beyond all ALMfields to IT, computer and communication chip sets. With embeddedmulti-cores (i.e., RAM, ROM, Flash, DSP blocks), the chips have powerfulspeed, multimedia functionality, and capacity. Each of the SoC chips candeliver full audio, video, and data processing and storage services as asubsystem component, and the PCB and module units may support moreaggressive server functions.

A-Si Thin Film and Photon-Voltaic Electricity Generation, and SolarEngines

Since the advanced IC have significant thin film infrastructures postcontact metal, it is further proposed that SBD can be made with metallicand A-Si compound in the thin film regions, and SCMOS devices may extendto support:

1. Photon-Voltaic (PV) cells, solar engines.

2. Bio-chip and life science experiments, DNA and cancer researches.

Traditionally, there were PV cell constructs based on Si/SiGe PNjunction and GaAs materials. The best solar power conversion efficiencyin the state of the arts ranged from 6˜30% for low cost and hi-grade PVgeneration schemes. The PV process activates at Eg=1.1 eV, A-Si at 1.4eV, and GaAs at 1.8 eV. The main problem was that the conversionspectrum missed a main component of the infrared, which represents 49%of the solar energy.

It was discovered that the Co/Ti, Si P-, and Si N-bed offered ideal3-band subsystem. The Si valence band, and electron band are 1.1 eVapart, the metal work function sits in between at 0.52 eV. Both P-typeand N-type SBD device I-V characteristics in the TSMC labs were observed(FIG. 4). Complementarily PV actions can be found in the A-Si and metalthin film layers, and the band gap should be near 0.7+−0.2 eV. Thiscould fulfill a designer's dream if the PV apparatus can be developed sothat the solar power generation system efficiency may be upgraded to20˜50% or greater. Not only can small chips can be self energized bylights and optical means, but large power grid facilities can beassembled for home, commerce, and industrial use.

The Hybrid IC/Bio-Lab System

Small signal swing and low radiation are important attributes formedical and health considerations in human device interfaces. In 2005,Harvard scientists reported a hybrid system of the IC chips and bio-labexperimental assembly (FIG. 8). The base assembly uses a low power Sichip. In the thin film areas above the Si chips, it drives an array ofum spaced metal coils which control the magnetic field patterns thatmanipulates the motions of the bio-cell molecules, which are sphericallyshaped and coated by magnetic sensitive beads and were floating in thebio-fluid solution in the upper duct controlled by valves. This deviceis used to conduct life science cell research, bio-medical experiments,DNA analysis, and cancer studies. It is vital that the chips inoperation are of extremely low power, so the heat generated in theassembly is small, and the temperature of the bio-lab environment aremaintained at body temperatures.

The Lowest Cost and Fastest Mask Programmed ROM

The electrical erasable and programmable EEPROM memory has received wideattention in the last decade. A Flash memory cell, with its multiple bit(2/4) storage capability in one physical cell layout, is a better choiceto implement information storage devices. However, it has two drawbackshindering its applications.

1) It requires several masks and wafer process steps, plus the deviceoperations are somewhat destructive and it has endurance problems.

2) The circuit operations are the most complicated and slow. The readingof the first byte is in u-seconds, and the writing of the arrays is evenslower. The large performance gap of the EEPROM blocks kept it distantfrom integration with the high speed processor blocks in the same chip,so EEPROM can only serve as a storage device to compete against therotating disks. Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method forproviding a field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) with the SCL means,which overcomes the above-identified problems. The present inventionaddressed by such a need.

The Densest and Fastest NV Memory Unit is Missing

The density, power, and speed capability of Flash arrays exceed that ofrotating disks, so the semiconductor EEPROM is replacing the mechanicaldisk medium in many applications. However, the Flash memory cell shouldhave replaced DRAM/SRAM if the speed performance was improved, besidesits superior property of being nonvolatile and having a density ofmulti-level per cell for information storage. However, little work wasdeveloped to employ the FLASH technology to work with high speed logicprocessing applications. The author (FIG. 10) reports using the EEPROMas switches to wire or reconfigure circuits in a FPGA designmethodology. Altera and Xilinx offer field programmable chips tointerconnect various CMOS hardware constructs to form complex circuitfunctions. The standalone FPGA devices support re-configurable controlfunctions that are easy to change with instant deliverable parts.Nevertheless, their speed grades are unmatched to RAM and logiccircuits.

By implementing an ideal high speed and high capacity ROM with the SBDarrays as outlined in FIG. 11, the gaps can be closed between logicunits and its slower other system units (Analog, Memory, and Storagecodes blocks) on a chip. A 64 MB mask programmed SBD array core in chipwith 2 layers of metals can be built, and it reads instruction codes ingiga-Htz performance. This NV block, standard logic gates, and small RAMcore shall be adequate to support most of the multi-media controllerfunctions. Therefore the various system units can work together smoothlyat least in the mobile small systems. The chips can be made by a lowcost logic product line starts at 0.25 um.

Benefits of SCMOS IC Expand to PVG, Bio-Lab Chips

1. Combined SCL, SPTL and augmented SCMOS process, device, and circuitmeans for computer macros, solar cells and energy management, lifescience, bio-lab experiment, and medical research applications.

2. The SCMOS process and device means are basically compatible to theBipolar, CMOS, GaAs, SiGe single crystal and amorphous poly Si crystalsemiconductor state of the arts, but can be simplified subject tospecific commercial applications It uses special metals such as Ti/Cofor nich I-V characteristics, added new modes of spectrum photo-voltaicresponses.

3. The SCMOS circuit means covers all CMOS macros, but retains all thesimple gates. SCMOS build up its own super set macros with uniquecircuit topology, much more compact layouts, higher speed, lower powerconsumption, and flexibility.

4. The SCMOS process and device means further include A-Si, and GaAs,SiGe, and thin film processes for various applications in computers andmicroelectronics, opto-electrical and electro-mechanical machines, solaror other energy conversion and management, and bio-lab and human/animalorgan/tissue/cell studies.

5. Combined SCMOS DTL and CMOS TTL standard cell simple gate macros,+SFLash+SFPGA+Shottky SRAM+Shottky DRAM process, device, and circuittechniques.

SCMOS chips, due to its highest efficiency, may be employed tomanipulate energy conversion tasks.

6. There are new modes of energy conversion band gaps other than the PNjunction band (1.25-0 eV), such as 0.52-0 eV, and 1.0-0.52 eV; whereinthe new apparatus shall upgrade solar PV generation in all cases ofcommercial systems by converting the infra red rays. The overall systemPV conversion efficiency may be significantly improved from present11-30% range to 15-50% or better.

The SCMOS microelectronics chips may be employed in the Bio-lab-chipassemblies with bio-fluid control apparatus. Its low cost and low powernature and 3D cell motion manipulations by electro-mechanical controlsprovide ideal medical lab environments for bio-cell characterizations,and life science experiments.

-   -   a. Diode replaces transistor functions—for all analog, logic,        and memory fields.    -   b. Circuit benefits:        -   i. Integration schemes to reduce total layout areas of            transistors, net, and gate counts, and wiring distances,            stray capacitances;        -   ii. Access speed gains;        -   iii. Power savings; and        -   iv. Yield enhancements due to area reduction and lower            current and voltage stressing. Have less stressed            components.        -   v. Integrated flexibility-instantaneous re-configurable            hw/sw resources.

6. Under SCMOS circuit means, the SCL library contains SCL, SPTL typeembodiments of:

-   -   1. Phase Detector for frequency and phase comparison.    -   2. Time delay element, and delay chains.    -   3. Nature on-chip ring oscillator, most efficient chargers for        the GHz switching power supplies.    -   4. Feedback crystal oscillator for low and moderate clocks.    -   5. Waveform combiner 1 with pass transistor logic and Schmitt        trigger means to multiply frequency for GHz clocks.    -   6. Waveform combiner 2 with inverter-chain and delay selector        means to multiply frequency for GHz clocks.    -   7. D-register for frequency divider.    -   8. Frequency multiplier scheme.    -   9. Two phase non-overlap Clock generator and driver scheme.    -   10. Integration means for SCL, RAM (SRAM, DRAM, SDRAM, DDR3        DRAM, ROM, and FPGA technology.    -   11. Integration means for data storage, processing, transfer and        boot codes.

Advantages

1. Integration means for digital and analog data acquisition andconversions including ATD/DTA converters. Under SCMOS circuit means, thePhoto Voltaic cells may contain both Si single crystal and A-Si specialmetal Si compounds layers, in chips and other thin film structures, and

-   -   a. including GaAs and Si Ge materials and panels for the solar        electricity generation apparatus. Aimed to include more        activation modes of energy absorption and conversions from the        well known prior arts of Eg equal to 1.8, 1.4 and 1.1 eV.    -   b. Collectively increases conversions of in far red region of        lights with Eg from 0.52, 0.7, and 0.9 eV, hence the overall        system efficiency from 6-30% to 10-50% or better.

2. Under SCMOS circuit means, construct devices to conduct bio-labexperiments for life science and medical equipments that characterizebiological cell activities, tissue and organ structures, diseasecontrols, monitoring and cure methods.

3. Under SCMOS device and circuit means, construct various memory coresfor SoC level subsystems in chips, module and PCB forms of deviceassemblies.

-   -   a. low cost Mask programmed ROM    -   b. Static and dynamic RAM    -   c. Flash array    -   d. Static and dynamic logic cells, shift registers, latches    -   e. Pass transistor logic cells

4. The mixed application of the above SCMOS design platform shallbenefit the performance and cost factors of all categories and grades ofthe microelectronics product, past, current, and future generations,specifically including but not limited to hardware and software meansfor:

-   -   a. Handheld small systems for computers and communication        devices.    -   b. Solar electricity generation, and solar engines for motions,        heating, and sensors, switching power supply units.    -   c. Medical and life science equipments.

The complementary low threshold Schottky barrier diodes (SBD) andtransistors (BJT, CMOST, and FlashT of Si, GaAs, or SiGe) are devicecomponent pairs for integrated circuits (IC). They offer advantages asgeneric elements in forming macro functions with superb performance andelegant compactness. Using IC process compatible means, and a specialDTL like circuit topology, we can build Analog, Logic and Memory (ALM)functional blocks, and then reuse them collectively for simple andadvanced IC chips, modules, and PCB assembled subsystems. Prior art inIC were from the Bipolar and CMOS devices; the new types of IC devices,the family of Schottky CMOS or Super CMOS (SCMOS) devices.

SCMOS device contains all simple gates of CMOS macros. However, allcomplicated macros with more than 2 way inputs are reconfigured by DTLimplementations, and may operated statically and/or dynamically with VCCto 1.2V or lower. The SCMOS super set ALM macros show orders ofmagnitude better in performance and low cost figures than the standardCMOS circuits. They achieve area compactness and high speed gain ratios(2:1), high capacity in RAM and NV mask ROM, Flash programmable memorystorage (4 F²/bit) in Giga Hz and Mega Bytes, and extremely low powerdissipation (4:1). Full benefits are for PC and handheld devices inmobile systems. Where mixed low signal swing chip nets deliver energyefficient data transactions and controls with high speed and highcapacity memories, low power, and low cost SoC cores. Open endedemerging applications involving metal silicide compounds with amorphousSi (A-Si) thin films penetrating into photon voltaic field of solar celland engines, life science field of bio-lab experiment, and medicalresearches for human organ, tissue and cells.

The SCMOS microelectronics chips may be employed in the Bio-lab-chipassemblies with bio fluid control apparatus. Its low cost, low powernature and 3D cell motion manipulations by electro-mechanical controlsprovide ideal medical lab environments for bio-cell characterizations,and life science experiments.

A means and control schemes are disclosed to field program basic circuitelement or any critical nets, and to alter the functionality of certainpredetermined circuit units, and update array interconnections,accessing stored protocols, algorithms in all chips in the embodimentsubsystem of a SFPGA chip sets.

Although the present invention has been described in accordance with theembodiments shown, one of ordinary skill in the art will readilyrecognize that there could be variations to the embodiments and thosevariations would be within the spirit and scope of the presentinvention. Accordingly, many modifications may be made by one ofordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A subsystem comprising: a substrate; and aplurality of devices placed on the substrate; wherein the plurality ofintegrated circuits are formed with a plurality of programming,resources, logic memory and timing control micro functions.